University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies INFOST 646 Library Materials for Young Adults On-site Spring 2016

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1 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies INFOST 646 Library Materials for Young Adults On-site Spring 2016 Mary Wepking, B.S., M.L.I.S., Senior Lecturer Phone: Fax: NWQ Building B, 3489 Office Hours: By appointment COURSE DESCRIPTION: Criteria for evaluation and selection of materials for young adults, emphasizing current resources and techniques for reading guidance. OBJECTIVES: 1. To determine who the adolescent is, what his or her needs are, what s/he wants to read and why. 2. To read widely and critically books intended for and/or of interest to teenagers. 3. To become familiar with selection and evaluation tools for YA materials. 4. To explore issues related to intellectual freedom and access to information in the YA environment. If you are a student with special needs, please contact me. COMPETENCIES ADDRESSED: This course addresses the following YALSA (ALA) competencies: Area I - Leadership and Professionalism Encourage young adults to become lifelong library users by helping them to discover what libraries offer, how to use library resources, and how libraries can assist them in actualizing their overall growth and development. Area II - Knowledge of Client Group. Keep up-to-date with popular culture and technological advances that interest young adults. Demonstrate an understanding of, and a respect for, diverse cultural, religious, and ethnic values. Identify and meet the needs of patrons with special needs. Area III - Communication, Marketing & Outreach Be an advocate for young adults and effectively promote the role of the library in serving young adults, demonstrating that the - 1 -

2 provision of services to this group can help young adults build assets, achieve success, and in turn, create a stronger community. Identify young adult interests and groups underserved or not yet served by the library, including at-risk teens, those with disabilities, non-english speakers, etc., as well as those with special or niche interests. Area IV - Administration. Develop written policies that mandate the rights of young adults to equitable library service. Area V - Knowledge of Materials Meet the informational and recreational needs of young adults through the development of an appropriate collection for all types of readers and non-readers. Develop a collection development policy that supports and reflect the needs and interests of young adults and is consistent with the parent institution s mission and policies. Demonstrate a knowledge and appreciation of literature for and by young adults in traditional and emerging formats. Develop a collection of materials from a broad range of selection sources, and for a variety of reading skill levels, that encompasses all appropriate formats, including, but not limited to, media that reflect varied and emerging technologies, and materials in languages other than English. Serve as a knowledgeable resource to schools in the community as well as parents and caregivers on materials for young adults. Area VI - Access to Information Organize physical and virtual collections to maximize easy, equitable, and independent access to information by young adults. Utilize current merchandising and promotional techniques to attract and invite young adults to use the collection. Maintain awareness of ongoing technological advances and how they can improve access to information for young adults. Area VII - Services Continually identify trends and pop-culture interests of young people to inform, and direct their recreational collection and programming needs

3 TEXTBOOK AND OTHER RESOURCES: There is a required text for this course, available in the UWM Bookstore and elsewhere online: Cart, Michael. Young Adult Literature: from romance to realism. Chicago: ALA, 2010, ISBN This is a course designed for practicing librarians as opposed to researchers and those interested in a scholarly approach to young adult literature. The Cart text supports this practical purpose. If you ARE interested in scholarship and literary theory, I recommend this additional text: Handbook of Research on Children s and Young Adult Literature. Shelby A. Wolf, Karen Coats, Patricia Enciso, and Christine Jenkins, eds. New York: Routledge, I have chosen some material and a reading from this new anthology, however most of our readings and discussion will be through the lens of library practice, approaching young adult literature and materials in terms of building and promoting good collections for our adolescent patrons. In addition to the Cart text, there are MANY young adult titles to acquire as we move through the sessions. You may obtain the required and selected books from your local library, although some students do choose to purchase the materials. Along with the Cart text, you will be reading articles and book chapters which are available on the content page of the D2L site. In-class lectures will also be provided for some topics. The D2L site will also include a discussion forum labeled Coffee Shop. This is a place for you to post any news, links to pertinent resources, and other materials related to young adult library materials which you may wish to share with the class. METHODS: The primary method of instruction will be lecture, readings, discussion, inclass group activities and research. There will also be opportunities for students to share information with the class, especially when there is a choice of books to read for a session. Always come to class prepared to share what you have read with your classmates since sometimes you may be the only student who has chosen a particular title. In those cases, you will be responsible to briefly summarize your selection, inform your classmates with information about the author, critical reception and/or awards the book has received, potential audience, and how the book is representative of the theme or genre of that unit

4 Rubric for Assessment of your participation in class discussion and activities (Make-up work must be arranged for absences) 25 pt. Participation 20 pt. participation Always well Prepared for prepared for discussion most discussion. Evident of the time. that individual has Evident that completed and individual thoughtfully completed the considered all reading. readings. Brings Comments are additional material mostly well to discussion. supported and Engages show above classmates in average dialog that adds thought. Supports significant and engages dimension to classmates. discussion. 15 pt. Participation 10-0 pt. Participation Prepared for Rarely contributes discussion some to discussion. times. It was not Comments show evident that little thought student completed about the week s reading prior to topic or evidence discussion period. that required Comments show readings were little thought. completed. Comments are isolated from class dialog. Students will be provided with feedback on their discussion and participation performance twice during the term, early or mid-way through the course with up to 10 points and at the conclusion of the course, with an additional 15 points. COURSE CALENDAR: Note: You will be completing ONLY FOUR book review assignments (marked **). Mark your selected themes/genres and disregard the rest. Week 1: January 25 Introductions, overview of syllabus, review of assignments and readings, course website; early history of YA Literature and discussion of Chocolate War Required book: Read: Chocolate War (Robert Cormier) Cart, chapters 1 & 2 (p. 3-36); Kaplan, The changing face of young adult literature

5 Week 2: February 1 YA literature in the 80 s and 90 s; international voices Required books: Sold (Patricia McCormick); Persepolis I (Marjane Satrapi) a graphic novel Read: Cart, chapters 3 & 4 (p ); Rochman, Against Borders ; Turtam, How to Write a Book Review **Due Sunday February 7 th by midnight: Wiki review on an international selection of your choice (taking place outside the US). Week 3: February 8 The beginning of the new golden age of YA literature Required books (CHOOSE ONE): Monster (Walter Dean Myers Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson) Hard Love (Ellen Wittlinger) Skellig (David Almond) Read: Cart, chapters 5 & 6 (p.57-87) Explore: The YALSA and ALSC booklist and awards websites View: ALA 2015 Youth Media Awards Ceremony Due Sunday February 14 th by midnight: Review paper on your selected Printz winner. See assignments for details. Week 4: February 16 Literary Young Adult works; readers advisory Required book: The Book Thief (Markus Zusak) Read: Young Adult Literature: growing up, in theory by Coats (Handbook) Read: Serving Teens through Readers Advisory (Booth) Blurring Gender Lines in Readers Advisory for Young Adults (Brender) **Due Sunday February 21 st by midnight: Wiki review on an historical fiction work of your choice. Week 5: February 22 Speculative Fiction part 1: Science Fiction and Dystopia Required book: Feed (M.T. Anderson) Read: Cart, chapter 7 (p ); Miller, Fresh Hell - 5 -

6 **Due Sunday February 28 th by midnight: Wiki review on a science fiction or dystopia selection of your choice. Week 6: March 2 Speculative Fiction part 2: Fantasy Required book (CHOOSE ONE of these notable YA fantasy novels): Cinder (Marissa Meyer)* - re-told fairy tale, steampunk Monstrumologist (Rick Yancy)* - horror Wee Free Men (Terry Pratchett)* - humor * First in a series Read: Cunningham, Engaging and enchanting the heart **Due Sunday March 6 th by midnight: Wiki review on a YA fantasy selection of your choice. Week 7: March 9 Crossover YA/Adult literature; booktalking Required book (CHOOSE ONE of these notable Alex Award winners): Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon) Stitches (David Small) a graphic novel The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls) Read: Cart, chapter 8 (p ); Raab, I m Y.A. and I m OK Read: Jones, Booktalking chapter & Younker, Talking it Up **Due Saturday, March 12 th by midnight: Wiki review on a crossover selection of your choice (adult book suitable or recommended for teens). Week 8: March Spring Break Week 9: March 21 Multicultural Literature for YA readers Required book: Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie) Read: Cart, chapter 9, (p Read: Hughes-Hassell, Multicultural young adult literature as a form of counter-storytelling **Due Sunday March 27 th by midnight: Wiki review on a multicultural selection of your choice. Week 10: March 28 The best in realistic contemporary fiction; censorship - 6 -

7 Required book (CHOOSE ONE of the following recent & notable novels): Eleanor and Park (Rainbow Rowell) Fault in our Stars (John Green) Mosquitoland (David Arnold) Read: Cart, chapter 10 (p ) Read: LaRue, Buddha at the Gate, Running and LaRue letters **Due Sunday, April 3 rd by midnight: Wiki review on a realistic contemporary novel of your choice. Due Sunday April 3 rd by midnight: Booktalk script. Week 11: April 4 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Required book: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Saenz) Read: Cart, Chapter 11 ( ) Read: Martin & Murdock, Understanding the Community and Logan, et al, Criteria for the selection of young adult queer literature During this class, you will also be presenting your booktalk to your classmates either in a traditional, live booktalk or sharing a digital booktalk you have created. **Due Sunday April 10 th by midnight: Wiki review on an LGBT selection of your choice. Week 12: April 11 Graphic Novels & other visual materials Required books: Maus I (Spiegelman), PLUS find and read one manga selection (use Cart s suggestions for good intro books Sailor Moon, Fruits Basket, Naruto, Full Metal Alchemist, etc.) Read: Cart, chapter 12 (p ) Read: Graphic Novels 101 (Rudiger); Explain Manga to Me (Rees); The Case for Graphic Novels (Hoover) - 7 -

8 **Due Sunday April 17 th by midnight: Wiki review on a graphic novel of your choice. Due Sunday, April 17 th by midnight: Publicity Project. Week 13: April 18 Non-fiction Required book (CHOOSE ONE of the following non-fiction books): Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World s Most Dangerous Weapon (Steve Sheinkin) Symphony for the City of the Dead (M.T. Anderson) The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia (Candace Fleming) Read: Cart, chapter 13 (p ) Read: The Power of Information (Smith), and Nonfiction: What s Really New (Bader) **Due Sunday April 24 th by midnight: Wiki review on a non-fiction work of your choice. Week 14: April 25 Potpourri Read: Building a Community of High School Readers (Roberts) Required Reading: Choose any TWO titles from the following list, ideally from 2 different categories & be prepared to discuss in the discussion forum. You will be sharing with the class the titles you read, who the books might appeal to (age, gender, etc.), your overall impression of the books, and any other details you care to share, including critical reception. I will provide additional instruction at the session nears. Biographies/Memoirs: Charles and Emma: Darwin s Leap of Faith by Deborah Heligman Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal A Hole in my Life by Jack Gantos Poetry: The Crossover by Kwame Alexander 19 Varieties of Gazelle by Naomi Shihab Nye Please Excuse this Poem, ed. by Lauer, Melnick, Forche - 8 -

9 Historical Fiction: Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys Copper Sun by Sharon Draper Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly Short Stories for Teens (read several stories in the collection): Steampunk: An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories, Kelly Link and Gavin Grant (editors) How They Met and Other Stories by David Levithan Geektastic, edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci Week 15: May 2 Non-print materials; course wrap-up Read: Cart, chapter 14 (p ); Parsons & Hundley, Reading with blurred boundaries: the influence of digital and visual culture on young adult novels. **Due Thursday, May 5 th by midnight: Wiki review on other literature category not previously mentioned (may include memoir/biography, poetry and short story choices from the potpourri unit, plus film or audiobook reviews). ASSIGNMENTS - double-spaced, standard fonts and margins, please. Wiki reviews (20 points - 5 points each x 4 reviews) Post to the class wiki and also upload to the dropbox; due as indicated above. On the Course Outline above, you will see that there are about 10 sessions with book reviews due. You are required to CHOOSE FOUR of these 10 sessions only. For any of the sessions indicated, you will be selecting and reading an additional book on that unit s topic or theme. Use good research strategies (there will be a selection/reviews lecture early in the course which will give you some good tips)to find a book that s worth recommending to your classmates through our wiki. Use the brief, simple Turtam article from our 2 nd session to guide you writing your book review. Also, read some book reviews from standard YA review sources (School Library Journal, Booklist, Horn Book, VOYA, etc.) for guidance. You ll most often see a very brief plot summary (no spoilers) followed by an assessment of the book s strengths or weaknesses. You may recommend an age or grade range if you wish, but it is not required. A good book review might be in the 200 to 250 word range. I hope that these reviews will inform classmates of good YA books by theme or genre, and encourage them to keep reading YA after this course is concluded

10 Write your review in a Word document and upload it to the dropbox by the due date indicated. Then post your review to the class wiki, using the appropriate tag (tags indicated on the left). Link: Review paper on Printz winner/honor book of your choice (20 points) Due as indicated on the class schedule above: This assignment is designed to assess your ability to locate useful published book reviews or works of criticism on your chosen book/author to aid you in your future work in collection development. It will also help you to identify the qualities of excellence in YA literature and evaluate how the work you read conforms to those criteria. You will read and reflect on the reviews you find of your chosen Printz winner/honor book for week 3 and also review the criteria for that particular award. You will be writing a summary of the various observations and opinions shared by the reviewers and critics. Since these are award-winning materials, you should be able to locate many reviews and/or works of literary criticism. Additionally, you are encouraged to explore sources for reader reviews; Amazon, Good Reads, Library Thing, library catalog comments and other online places that allow readers to respond to the books. Special attention should be paid to reader reviews you believe are written by adolescents (some may include an age or grade). In addition to sharing general thoughts about the book you ve read on the discussion forum as instructed, you will be submitting to the dropbox a written summary of critical response to the book. Week 2 s lecture on Selection of Young Adult Materials and Finding Reviews should be very useful to those of you early in your MLIS program. Your paper should be about 6 to 8 pages long, include brief quotes from reviews as necessary, but be largely written in your own words. In other words, I do not want you to submit a paper that is mostly comprised of quoted material from reviews. Summarize what you ve read and include quotations only as needed. A Works Cited page should include citations to at least five published reviews/sources. Reader reviews would be in addition to this minimum. Include an MLA-style works cited on a separate page. The website and UWM library s RefWorks are automated tools to cite in MLA style; Ebsco and other databases also have automated citation creation tools, too. Look particularly for reviews from standard YA review sources (School Library Journal, VOYA, Horn Book, Booklist, LMC, etc. as well as non-library publications such as the New York Times & other newspapers). You may also wish to cite articles about the book/author. Please organize the paper, roughly, as follows:

11 Introduction Include title, author, and brief plot summary (this should be no more than a page). Body of paper Give a summary of critical response to the book (cite sources). Reference to reader reviews may be included as well, especially if you are able to find or identify teen responses to the book. Add information about the author including a summary of the author s work and achievement since this 1999 publication. Conclusion Provide your reaction to the book as young adult literature. In particular, consider the Printz Award criteria, exploring the ways in which this book met the criteria (or perhaps fell short, in your assessment). Booktalk, (15 points) Due as indicated on the class schedule above: Each student will submit a written booktalk script on a young adult title of your choice. Please write your booktalk as if it were to be presented to an audience of young adults. You may choose any YA book that is NOT on this syllabus as a required or selected reading. However, please be aware that I expect you to select a young adult title that has received some critical acclaim. Take a look at ALA s lists of award-winning books beyond the Printz (there are many) for the past several years, particularly Best Books/fiction for Young Adults (check out the top ten for each year), Nonfiction winners, Morris, and Teens Top Ten. There will be readings & a video on booktalking techniques to help you prepare a successful booktalk. A rubric for assessment of your booktalk will be provided. Your written booktalk should be about 1 to 1.5 pages, doublespaced. In addition to writing and submitting the script, you will be presenting your booktalk during week 11 s class. Doing a traditional, live booktalk is fine and typical, but you may also choose to create a digitial booktalk which you will share. Some examples will be shared with you for ideas. Camtasia Relay, imovie or Windows MovieMaker all work well. Publicity Project (20 points) Due as indicated on the class schedule above: In our readings on readers advisory and censorship issues, we have learned that teens will sometimes be reluctant to ask a librarian for help in locating the materials they re looking for. For that reason, it s important that librarians serving teens are experts in passive readers advisory through a variety of means. We must be pro-active in our efforts to let teens know about our materials through our publicity and promotion efforts

12 For this final project, each of you will be creating a publicity or marketing thing that can be used to let the teens in your library know about your collection and resources. Choose a topic or theme and publicize it with a brochure, bookmark, webpage, blog, video, or any other format you like. If you work in a library, create an amazing display, take a picture of it, and describe it in a brief paper. Creativity is encouraged! Here are a few guidelines: Your topic might be a genre (historical fiction, steampunk, memoirs, etc.) or a topic (WWII, eating disorders, Native Americans, etc.) For every item, be sure to include a sentence or two that describes (and sells!) the book or resource Shoot for about 10 to 15 items on your topic. And here are some ideas for your product, or come up with your own idea: A well-designed series of bookmarks (at least 3 bookmarks, 2 sided, with brief detail on several items on each) A brochure, tri-fold or flyer A detailed and attractive poster that could be mounted in the fiction section of your library A webpage or blog that publicizes these titles A few digital book trailers or recorded booktalks (YouTube?) -- if you choose this one, you would only need to publicize 3 or 4 books. A display with pictures & brief paper that describes your display purpose, materials selected, etc. Other???? Again, your creativity is encouraged. You will be uploading the file to the dropbox, and I would like to be able to open it, so Microsoft Office or PDF formats will be best. If you choose to create an online project (such as a YouTube video, a blog or webpage), you may just submit the link. If you create a display, upload a few clear pictures of the display along with a brief paper that details your goal/theme and the selected materials with a very brief synopsis or justification for each. Summary of assignments: Discussion Booktalk script and presentation Printz winner/honor book review paper Publicity Project Book reviews for wiki (choose 4; worth 5 points each) TOTAL 25 points 15 points 20 points 20 points 20 points 100 points

13 UWM Grading Scale: A C A C B D B D B D C+ Below 60 F For additional SOIS academic policies please go to NOTE: A separate document will be made available to inform undergraduate students of their responsibilities